McConnell, Grimes release competing television ads in U.S. Senate race

Kentucky’s U.S. Senate candidates launched new television ads Wednesday, with Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell highlighting his support among young women while Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes targets remarks the five-term incumbent made at a meeting of wealthy conservative donors in June.

McConnell’s campaign struck first in his statewide ad titled “Represent Me,” which features four young women who back McConnell’s reelection as well as a link to the website womenformitch.com.

“She (Grimes) thinks I’ll vote for the candidate who looks like me,” Ashley Burkhead says to the camera. “Rather than the one who represents me,” Caroline Anderegg says to the camera.

The ad can be seen here:

Grimes’ campaign called McConnell’s ad “insulting” and said the spot “airbrushes his 30-year, anti-women record and fails to mention a single thing he will do to help Kentucky women and families.”

“He’ll say anything,” a male narrator says of McConnell. “Now we learn what he said to a secret meeting of billionaires: that he’ll block a higher minimum wage, extension of unemployment benefits and affordable student loans.”

The spot can be seen here:

McConnell’s campaign called the ad “perhaps the most brazenly false smear since Aqua Buddha,” a reference to Democrat Jack Conway’s attack ad against U.S. Sen. Rand Paul during their 2010 race.

“What makes this one worse is that the candidate herself actually delivers the falsehoods herself directly to Kentucky voters,” McConnell campaign spokeswoman Allison Moore said in a statement. “It always raises serious character questions when a politician is capable of looking Kentuckians straight in the eye and knowingly lie to them with a straight face.”

Kevin Wheatley

Kevin Wheatley is a reporter for Pure Politics. He joined cn|2 in September 2014 after five years at The State Journal in Frankfort, where he covered Kentucky government and politics. You can reach him at kevin.wheatley@charter.com or 502-792-1135 and follow him on Twitter at @KWheatley_cn2.